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False confessions research paper
False confessions research paper
False confessions research paper
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The Why, False Confessions Of course there are many things that can cause a false confession. Because so many false confessions happen so often it leads us to think of why they happen, many of them are caused by mental impairment, ignorance of the law, or an infliction of harm by interrogators or police officers. There are also many people who do not believe these things but rather say that they would never confess to a crime they did not commit. Many cases have come up when it comes to false confessions and yes, there are many solutions to these problems. People have to believe there is a problem first. Those mentally impaired with no knowledge of their illness who are being interrogated often don't know what the difference is from one …show more content…
Many people that have been interrogated and have confessed only do so because they believe that it will be more beneficial than continuing to maintain their innocence. John Vespasian, author of books on philosophy and psychology, told Medical Daily “People can confess to a crime they have not committed because they are suffering from a pre-existing psychological disturbance” (Interrogation). A lot of the time is it to just stop the interrogation because in many cases the suspects are sleep deprived or starved. The average interrogation, relating to false confessions, is about 16 hours according to a book by Richard A. Leo, a law professor at the University of San Francisco and has worked in many false confession cases. The simple act of being interrogated can affect the way people act or react to certain words or details that they are being told. There are many ways that cause false confessions to occur and perhaps we will never be able to fix them. The point is to keep trying to fix these problems. The mental impairment that police don't know how to handle, some type of barrier whether it be language or innocence of the law, or the fear of the infliction of harm are all causes of false confessions. Of course there are many more factors to false confessions, but there …show more content…
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In a handful of occasions such as in an interrogation it seems reasonable enough to lie to an individual in order for them to confess to a crime. A case law that shows this was Frazier v. Cupp in which according to Police Link, “ The case involved the interrogation of a homicide suspect who was falsely told that an accomplice had already implicated the suspect in the killing.” In the case of Frazier v. Cupp kept on getting integrated even after he asked to speak to a lawyer so as a result he ended up doing a written confession where he confessed about being part of the murder that was later used as evidence against him.
In order to incriminate Danial Williams, Joseph Dick, Eric Wilson, and Derek Tice with the rape and murder of Michelle Moore-Bosko, Detectives Maureen Evans and Robert Ford conducted long, grueling interrogation sessions using many provocative and manipulative tactics. Throughout this process, Ford and Evans coerced the suspects into renegotiating their perception of the crime until an entirely new reality was created. This new reality evolved as the police elicited additional confessionary evidence to account for each new piece of physical evidence from the crime scene. Eventually, in an iterative process that had police editing their theories of the crime and then forcing the suspects to claim this new reality as their own, the reconciled reality of the crime became one that was consistent with both the criminal evidence and the suspects’ new perception. An analysis of empirical m...
In fact, the minute they bring someone in on reasonable suspicion, there is an 80% chances of the suspect being the guilty party. Therefore, beyond reasonable doubt a blurred line is established. Detectives have evidence to bring in the suspect, getting them to confess becomes the mission of the case. Whether or not they are innocent or guilty doesn’t matter, for chances are their suspect is in fact guilty. And the faster they book someone, the better their arrest record gets, and the further they can advance their career. If it means overlook some information and just aim to get the confession, to pull an arrest, it will
The first appearance of the notion of silence or lack of silence occurs at the first presence of the criminal justice system: the initial meeting with a police officer. During the War on Drugs, it became common for police officers to stop and frisk people, including those without suspicious behavior, in search of drug violations. Although, not against the law, the majority of people do not know that they have the option of declining such a search and refuse to answer any questions. Professor Tracey Maclin conducted a study regarding this phenomenon concluding, “the overwhelming majority of people who are confronted by police and asked questions respond, and when asked to be searched, they comply. This is the case even among those… who have every reason to resist these tactics because they actually have something to hide” (Alexander 66). Therefore, the finding suggests that only a few people do not fear a supposed consequence of not abiding by a police officer’s request. Hence, people remain silent and do n...
The act of interrogation has been around for thousands of years. From the Punic Wars to the war in Iraq, interrogating criminals, prisoners or military officers in order to receive advantageous information has been regularly used. These interrogation techniques can range from physical pain to emotional distress. Hitting an individual with a whip while they hang from a ceiling or excessively questioning them may seem like an ideal way to get them to reveal something, but in reality it is ineffective and . This is because even the most enduring individual can be made to admit anything under excruciating circumstances. In the Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights there is a provision (“no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself” ) which reflects a time-honored common principle that no person is bound to betray him or herself or can be forced to give incriminating evidence. This ideology of self-incrimination has been challenged heavily over the past s...
Many of today’s interrogation models being utilized in police investigations have an impact on false confessions. The model that has been in the public eye recently is the social psychological process model of interrogation known as the “The Reid Technique.” There are two alternatives used by the police today to replace the Reid Technique, one is the PEACE Model and the other is Cognitive Interviewing. These methods are not interrogation techniques like Reid but interview processes.
Sometimes people create false confessions on their own without tampering from the police. “In the jogger case, four of the teens made incriminating admissions, but their descriptions of the attack were incomplete, inaccurate and, at times, contradictory. Investigators who reviewed the case were careful not to suggest wrongdoing or coercion on the part of the police”(Tyre). The police did their job, but “the teens were simply telling the police what the cops wanted to hear”(Tyre). In these situations, some people would prefer not spending hours and hours being interrogated and would rather just have the case settled, even if it not the truth. "A third of people who confess to crimes didn 't do it and incriminated themselves without physical coercion by police"(Slobodzian). This also means majority of those who produce false confessions did not think up the idea on their own. Police brutality during interrogation is still happening, though some are lucky not to experience
Mental retardation or suspects with low intelligence quotients (IQ) are easily manipulated by police comments and interrogation tactics. Those suspects usually do not understand the law or the consequences of a confession. They may want to please the police officer by being accommodating or agreeable. They may just wa...
These factors contributing to tunnel vision in the criminal justice system are the reasons for tunnel vision resulting in the wrongful convictions of innocent individuals. Another factor associated with wrongful convictions is eyewitness misidentification. The Innocence Project identifies eyewitness misidentification as the single most important factor leading to wrongful convictions. Eyewitness misidentification is often an error due to witnesses being under high pressure, witnesses focusing on the weapon more than the offender, and police procedures when receiving an identification statement from a victim. A study done by the Innocence Project says that eyewitness misidentification has contributed to 70% of convictions overturned nationwide.
Garrett, B. L. (n.d.). The Substance of False Confessions. Criminal Justice Collection. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from find.galegroup.com.uproxy.library.dc-uoit.ca/gtx/retrieve.do?contentSet=IAC-Documents&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28su%2CNone%2C28%29%22Wrongful+Convictions+%28Law%29%22%3AAnd%3ALQE%3D%28RE%2CNone%2C3%29ref%24&sgHitCo
Walsh, James, and Dan Browning. "Presumed Guilty Until Proved Innocent." Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN). 23 Jul 2000: A1+. SIRS Issues Researcher.
Skolnick, J. H., & Leo, R. A. (1992, January 1). The ethics of deceptive interrogation. Criminal Justice Ethics, 11(1). Retrieved from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The ethics of deceptive interrogation.-a012396024
Among various arrests, people who are put in jail or prison due to their confession must make them a proven criminal, right? Unfortunately, not everybody who confesses to a crime is in fact guilty. A false confession is an act of confessing to a crime that the confessor didn’t commit. That creates a conflict involving the individual being accused and the trust towards police interrogation. For instance, after nearly eight years in prison, Nicole Harris sued eight Chicago police detectives, alleging that they coerced her confession (Meiser Para.2) The police detectives incorrectly informed Harris in failing “the polygraph test” indicating that she lied about not committing the murder of her son, Jaquari Dancy (Meiser). She felt that there was
Leo, R and Ofshe R. The Social Psychology of Police Interrogation: The Theory and Classification of True and False Confessions. 16 Studies in Law, Politics and Society 189,
Reasons why people make false confess are complex and varied, but they all share a belief that if they comply with the police by saying that they committed the crime it would be more beneficial than continuing to maintain their innocence. Other factors that also contribute to false confessions being made during a police interrogation include the threat of a harsh punishment, length of the interrogation as well as the suspects lack of knowledge about the law. For many people, police interrogations are a freighting experience that can sometimes last for hours. Suspects who have a low IQ score are less likely to understand the accusations that are